The Wall Street Journal was once the greatest American newspaper. Sure, the OpEd writers were insane idealogues, and there was the occasional drunk or pederast on the masthead. But overall, the quality of the writing was so good, and the objective look at business so sharp, investors could rely on it.

Today, Fox News seems to write the headlines. The influence of the partisan editorials has completely overtaken the entire paper.

In other words, to investors, it has become a gnarly mess of unreliable, EXPENSIVE partisan bias. Nothing is trustworthy on its pages anymore. The problem with this is not political — rather, it is financial. (See my Washington Post article on exactly this topic, submitted on Thursday — before yesterday’s payroll data, and before this idiotic headline).

If you want objective, hard hitting business journalism, the role formerly inhabited by the WSJ has been taken over by the Bloomberg terminal and Bloomberg.com

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But there is hope! Given the poor stock performance of the News Corp — unchanged since 2000, and marginally higher than when Rupert bought the WSJ — there is pressure on News Corp to unload their money losing “News” business. If and when that happens, you can remove your the paper from your quarantine list. Hopefully by then, it won’t be too late for the Journal.

For now, the paper is best read with a skeptical eye — and a sense of humor.